Rangers Kid
by xLoveAngelx
Summary: What if 16 years ago, Ranger hooked up with an old lover and had an unknown child? Now its present day & this child is in need of a place to stay. So she turns to the one man she never knew. Her father, Ranger. Really good. Just start reading. SMUT late.
1. Chapter 1: Starting a New

**Authors Note: Hi there. This is my first story on here, so please forgive me if I mess things up on here because I'm not sure how everything works yet! This story is about what would happen if Ranger had a kid, and never knew about it. Now the girl is runing not only from her past but also to find a home. I promise, it will be an amazing story! **

**-LoveAngel**

**Rangers Kid**

I've always been the odd one out. At age 16 I could run faster and longer than most anyone else in P.E. At home among my brother and sister, I was the one that was chubby in my early teen years unlike my dreadfully skinny brother and sister. I was the one with the dark brown skin and dark green eyes, when I got mad would turn almost black. My mom said that you could see into my soul through my eyes. When I was younger I would always look into the mirror so that I could see what my soul looked like. I never saw my soul. Both of my older siblings had light blond hair and blue eyes with almost pale skin. They were the mirror image of my father. My father would jokingly tell me that he wasn't sure where they got me from. I'm pretty sure no one knew where I came from.

At age 14 I learn a valuable lesson that would get me through life. No one ever really sticks around forever. When I was 14 my mother died. She had always been my rock that I could lean on. My brother and his friends would always make fun of my weight, while my sister just shuns me all together. My father never really cared either way. But my dear mother, she always cared, always told me that everything was ok, and that if it wasn't then the end just hadn't come yet. But somehow, the end came all too soon for her…

My mom died from cancer. I watched for 3 years as she fought the cancer, than slowly and unwillingly had surrender to it. In the last stages of her cancer the doctors let her go home to be with her family. Even then they knew she was going to die from it, in months if not weeks. I watched as my last strong hold to this world slipped away from me. She lay on her death-bed, pale and meager. Not like she had been in life, she had always had a smile to share with everybody. Eyes that had untold secrets behind them, as they would laugh with joy. Ears that would always listen to the silliest of things. As a little girl she had hugs that could make all the bad things go away or simply make me smile. This wasn't her; this was but a feeble impression of her. Not really her.

It was the final hours of her death and we all knew it. She asked to spend time with each family member alone. She and my father spent an hour or so locked up in her room talking. When he came out the first thing on his face was anger then followed by a mixture of hate and love. After my older brother and sister came out of her room looking as if they didn't care either way, it was my turn. I never understood how my two siblings had been given so much by her, yet couldn't give a crap about her.

"My dear, Amora." My mother said as I sat on the edge of her bed. And before you ask, no Amora is not a term of endearment. Amora is my name. Pretty sure they were drunk when they picked names.

"I love you mom." I said looking in to her pale and sunken face.

_Not her._ I thought again for the umpteenth time.

"I love you to Amora. Remember that. Never forget how much I love you. You will always be my favorite. Keep it our little secret, will you dear? Now sweetie there's something I need to talk to you about. It's about your father." She paused seeming lost for words.

"What about him?"

"I have a story for you, my amora." She had always gotten a laugh out of the fact that she could call me love by simple saying my name. "First I need you to do something for me. Left up the rug and jiggle the loose bored. Pull it up and bring me the box inside of it."

Somewhat weird out I did as she asked. The box was a simple shoe box covered in dust. Handing it to her I curled up with her on her bed. Knowing that this might be last story she would ever tell me.

"I want you to meet your father baby girl." She said opening the box and pulling out a picture. I caught a quick glimpse inside the box and saw newspaper clippings as well as scraps of paper with note written on them. Before looking at the picture, I thought I would see my blond hair, blue-eyed father more than likely with my mother or maybe me. What I saw shocked me in to silence. The picture she pulled out was that of a 30 something dark mocha skinned man, with dark hair to match pulled back in a pony tail showing off his black eyes. In the picture he was with my mother arms tangled up, faces pressed together.

"I'm kind of lost…" my voice trailing away.

"The man out there, John Hopkins, he's not your real father. After your sister was born, our marriage was on the fritz. So when an old lover asked me to meet him for coffee, I didn't tell your father. Coffee soon turned in to dinner, dinner was then late night drinks. I only ever slept with him twice. Once before my marriage, and once…" she paused taking deep breaths "once while I was married. I want you to know that I never regretted who you are or having you with a man who I wasn't married to. John knows now. I told him when he was in here."

_Well that explains the look._ I thought trying to take this all in.

"My dear, Amora, remember how much I love you. Don't forget that. I never told your real father. He doesn't know baby. But if you ever need help, tell him" I could hear her trying harder to form words and speck them. "Tell him that you come in your mother's name. Castle."

"Mommy, I love you to." I said hugging her close to me. I can still to this day remember thinking 'this is it. The last time I will ever be able to tell her I love her.'

"Manoso. Ranger Manoso" Giving me the name of my father, where the last words my mother ever spoke to me before she finally gave in to the pain and let go of this world.

**Chapter 1: Starting a New**

At the age of 16 I've been arrested three times for being drunk, two times for drug use, and as of a week ago the most stupid one yet. Drunk driving. Thanks to the fact that John worked for the government, I had always just fallen through the cracks. I had always gotten a judge that was under John's control. A judge that had let me off with a slap on the wrist, but now my dad was pist.

"I'm done!" He yelled at me the second we got home.

"Hey, no one asked you to give a crap!" I retorted

"Yeah, well I'm done. I'm done with and your crap! I'm done giving a shit about you and pretending that you're my kid! Amora, let's face it you don't belong here. You never did. You're a freak! You're not mine and I'm tired of pretending I want you!"

"Then I'm gone!" I was so pissed I couldn't see straight.

_Why would anyone want me after last week, anyways?_ _No stop._ I wouldn't, couldn't, allow myself to think about last week right now. No, I need to be strong. I would never allow myself to give in to the pain and cry. No, I had to be strong.

"Hey don't get our hopes up!" He yelled as he grabbed another beer.

Doing a mental count in my head I came up with 3 and a half. I really don't know why we only drunk half a beer. It didn't make sense to me. But all I knew was that if I was going to leave, I needed to do so before he was done with his 4th and on his 5th.

Giving him another 'I-hate-you' looks I ran off to my room I grabbed my duffel bag and threw anything that I thought I would want in to it. As I was stuffing my clothes in my bag and looking around for my phone charger when my dear sister thought it would be a good time to drop by and say hello.

"So, where you going this time? Eli's again?" She asked leaning against my door frame.

"No Marry, we broke up." I said avoiding the real question.

"When?"

_Snoopy much?_

"Right now."

I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Eli clueing him in that I was done and I was leaving. He asked if Marry, my sister was single. Such class… You're catching the sarcasm right?

"So where are you going?"

"Somewhere far, far away from here, not really sure where I'm going but, yeah… Oh and Eli wants to know if your single."

"You don't have any money, or any one that would want you." She so lovingly pointed out. I sincerely hope you've caught on to the sarcasm.

But in a way, she was right. No one would want me; I didn't have any friends I could run too. The people that I called my family where making sure I left as quickly as possible. I had never had a job, so hence no money. I looked around my room for anything else that I might need. Then I saw it. My ticket to getting out. The box the held everything my mom had kept about my real father. All I had to do was find him and if…

"Oh, and tell Eli, I am. Is he a good kisser? Oh and can I have your room? I always liked the view!" She said interrupting my thoughts.

_Two word; Spoiled Brat._

"Only if you help me pack" I mumbled pulling the box down and sitting it next to the rest of my crap.

It took me less than 20 minutes to pack and put it all in to my Jeep. I didn't have much to start with. I only took what I had paid for or my mom had bought me. I felt the need to say goodbye to my brother. Even though we never got along he was somewhat my family.

"So Josh, I'm leaving. Running away if you will. So thought I'd say goodbye…" I said leaning in his door frame. Goodbyes had never been hard since I said goodbye to my mom.

"Psh. Ok fatty." He said rolling his eyes. Such a charmer. It was thanks to comments like this from him and all his friends that I went from being 189lbs to 125lbs within two years. I ran my butt off. Literally.

"Right. Bye." I said before walking out of a house I hated and a family that hated me.

**Authors Note: Please let me know what you think! Oh and how many thought her moms name was going to be 'Plum'?**


	2. Chapter 2: Les Then Wonderful

**Chapter 2: Les then Wonderful**

For two years after my mother's death, I never looked up my birthfather or for that matter ever told anyone that John Hopkins was anything less than my real dad. I had no reason or saw any reason to start something. Because truth was, it was more than likely that he didn't want to have anything to do with me.

But that was all starting to change. I was now a 16 year old with no home, a car that was running low on gas, and nowhere to go. Oh, and I guess I forgot to tell you that it was 2:36am and I was sitting in the parking lot of a gas station with a flat tire to top everything off.

_Great. Just my luck! Only you Amora! _I thought as I looked around the almost empty gas station. There were two other cars, other than mine. One was a beat up older looking truck and the other was a new black SUV.

I went inside to buy a map, some water and munchie food and ran in to a brick wall, either that or a guy with a really hard chest. I looked up in to dark eyes that where smiling.

"Hello beautiful." He said smiling at me with really white teeth.

"Uh huh." I said giving him my best piss-off look. I saw him in take a quick breath.

_Ha!_ I thought smuggle

"So you from around here beautiful?" he asked fallowing me around the store.

"Yes" I lied with ease. I had grown up in Virginia and I was now on the edge of Pennsylvania, between New York and New Jersey.

"How old are you?" he asked firing off another question.

"8." The truth is, lying was easy for me. No one had ever been able to tell whether or not I was lying or telling the truth.

"Psh. I'm sure you are."

"I'm glad you believe me." I said before paying for my junk and walking out.

I took a sip of the water before I look at the tire. Truth is, I've never changed my cars oil let alone the tire. My first plan of attack was to stand there until a new idea came to me.

_Google! _That was my second thought. My 3rd thought was something like, _No internet_. So I did what I do best, when in doubt just wing it.

I took out the tire from the back and all other shiny looking. I figured if I didn't know what it did and it was in my car, than it must do something important. That about as far as I got when, I noticed I was screwed. Well, it's more like after 10 minutes of twisting and tugging that I found this out.

"Need help beautiful?" asked the guy from the store. And if he didn't have such a big ego we would be like #1 on my hot-o-meter. He had dark creamy skin, deep brown eyes and a body to die for.

"Nope, I'm good." Not only am I good at lying I'm also good at avoiding the truth.

"Yes you are" I heard him murmur.

"Hey, I'm 8, remember?"

"Beautiful, those are not the boobs of an 8 year old!" he said this with such a childish grin I had to laugh.

"Good now that I got you laughing, let me help." He said moving in, hoping that he could leaned a hand.

"Not yet." I said moving to stand in front of the tire. "How do I know you're not a rent-a-thug here to kill me?"

Smiling he leaned close. "What would make you think that, Beautiful?"

"Well, first its 2:36 in the morning. You're dressed in all black, you're carrying three guns, three knifes. And your buddy over there keeps checking the layout of everything and won't relax. Oh and he has three guns on him. I'm guessing he's also hiding a gun behind his back as well. If yall where rent-a-cops, yall wouldn't have guns. That's why I guessed rent-a-thugs. So you can understand if I don't trust two guys with nine guns."

I watched as he stood there looking me over once more, as if only really now seeing me and the fact that I did have somewhat of a brain.

"Eleven. You missed one." He said after a long pause before pulling out a gun from his lower back to show me.

"Huh. I guess it was the fact that you're ambidextrous so you have a gun on your left shoulder and one on your right that threw me off."

"You can call me Les." Les then gently shoved me out of the way and went to work on my tire.

"So how do you know where not in the military?" Les asked as he played with my tire.

"The hair" I simply stated.

"Oh, I see." He ran his hand through his hair like he had just now realized that he had longer then military cut hair "So Beautiful, where you off to?"

I stayed quiet. Letting my face drain of any feeling or emotion, I figured I had already told him enough. He looked almost shocked, right before he too let all emotions go out of his face. It was kind of weird to see his eyes, which had been laughing and smiling, the whole time we had been talking go blank.

"What's your name?" he said his voice now blank.

Call me dumb, but I didn't see a reason to tell a man with a name like Les, who was carrying four guns and three knifes and was a rent-a-thug, my name. I know. I'm just that nutty.

"If you don't tell me at least one thing about you, that isn't a lie; I'll walk away from your car right now and leave you with this flat tire." He said giving me an ultimatum.

I paused, trying to think.

"Now Beautiful" He said reinforcing his statement. I looked at how far he had gotten on the tire. Nope, I still needed him.

"I'm not really 8." I blurted out. In that spilt second I saw his mask slip, before he roared with laughter.

"Well, if nothing else I am a man of my word" Flashing me a grin before he started working again.

"Huh, an honest rent-a-thug… who would have thought?" I murmured to myself.

It took him about another 15 minutes before he was done.

"So Beautiful, before I go I want to know how you learn to pick up on things about people." He said looking me dead in the eyes, brown against green.

"I look around. I didn't have many friends as a kid, so I was always watching others and learning." Hey, the guy just fixed my car, the least I could do is give him one truthful answer. And it was the truth. I had always been to dark to fit in with the white kids, yet to light to fit in with the black kids. I had been too chubby to fit in with any other group. I had learned to accept.

Looking in to Les's eyes, I saw a good guy. Not some rent-a-thug, or a killer, I saw a guy trying his hardest to do the right thing.

After a long pause he pulled out a piece of paper. "If you ever need someone to change your tire again, give me a call." He said writing his number on the card before handing it over. "Oh I wasn't here to kill you." He said winking before walking away.

**Authors Note: As always let me know what you think! The more feedback I get, the more I know where i want to take this story! That and it pushs me to post faster if I know people are in fact reading this story! (:**

**-LoverAngel**


	3. Chapter 3: Doesnt Even Know His Name

**Chapter 3: Doesn't Even Know His Name**

Alone, cold, tired, sore, hungry and needing of a shower. All things I was feeling right now. After Les said goodbye and put a tracking device on my car while he thought I wasn't looking, I crawled in to my car and drove to the closest hotel. Turns out it's cheaper to sleep in a car then it is to get a room. So I took a good long nap, until a hobo came bye to say hello. Yeah, that got me up and moving. Before pulling out of the motels parking lot I grabbed the tracking thingy Les had put on my jeep. Watching a maid open up a door and leave her little cart outside of the door I took my chance as she went in to the room. Taking the little tracking thingy I stuck it on to her cart. Now Les would just think I got a job at a motel. Perfect.

I pulled in to a McDonald's parking lot to get some food before I regrouped. I need a plan of action. I need something I could work to, it was the only thing I knew to do. After getting some fries and a coke I pulled out the box the held everything about my dad as well as my map. For the first time in two years I really looked inside the old shoe box. I pulled out the picture of my mother and the Manoso man.

_Was I really out of options? There HAD to be something else I could do, someone else that I could run to. Maybe I could get a job. _I thought about getting a job for a minute before harsh reality set in. _Who would want to hire a teenager with no home, and a criminal record?_

Yep. I was out of options. At the least this man could give me an address for maybe a few days so I could get a job. If I had an address that I could put down on my job applications, people might over look my record.

Set in my decision, I wasn't going to second guess myself again. Flipping the picture over, I saw long elegant hand writing.

_My Love,_

_I will come home to you! That's a promise I won't break. I'm so sorry my Amora; I never meant to hurt you all those years ago. It won't ever happen again. I never stopped loving you._

_-C._

Well, now I know four things about this guy. 1st he hurt my mom. 2nd he left to go somewhere, and he had the possibility of getting hurt. 3rd his name was Ranger Manoso. And 4thly the freak didn't know number 3 and signed his name with a C? What the heck? Oh and not on this list, I now knew where my name came from.

Next I pulled out a date with an address and time. It had been dated 1993. I didn't recognize the address but it was in New Jersey. I had already figured out that I should be headed to New Jersey, it was my birthplace. If nothing else I figured it might hold some answers as to why I was born in New Jersey and not in Virginia.

The 3rd thing I pulled out my birth certificate. Looking at my father's name on it, it said Ricardo Carlos Manoso. I instantly knew that Ricardo Carlos Manoso and Ranger Manoso, where one in the same. I also knew that without a doubt Manoso had never signed this paper. The hand writing was my mothers. It wasn't the same elegant writing like had been on the picture. This I stuck in my jeans pocket.

_What do you know Amora? Think. I know that I should be heading to New Jersey and find this address. I also know that I shouldn't be looking for Ricardo Manoso. I should only use the name Ranger. If my mom wanted me to use the name Ricardo, or even Carlos, she would have told me one of those names. No, she told me Ranger Manoso, and that's the name I will use. I know what he looked like 16 years ago._

Looking through the rest of the box I found mostly love letters and three **receipts****.** The two where from a pizza place called Pinos, and the third was from coffee shop. All three had one thing in common; all the addresses on them where for New Jersey. Since they had been to this Pinos twice I figured that would be my best bet.

Six hours, three slushy stops and four bathroom breaks later, I was Trenton, New Jersey. Looking at the address again and sing at the top of my lungs along with 'When We Die' by Bowling for Soup.

Finding places was like my 7th sense. My 6th was picking up the little things about people. Like rent-a-thugs for example. Pulling up outside of Pinos I really had no idea what I was going to do next. Walk in order some pizza then ask if they remember a guy that could have been in here 17 years ago? Or maybe I could… Looking in my rearview mirror my breath caught in my throat. Could it really be him?

**Authors Note: I love how I already have nine comments and it's only been just a few hours! (: This made me SOO happy that I'm giving another chapter yall! (: The more comments I get the faster I'll update! Just so yall know! (: But I REALLY want more feedback! I want to know what made you laugh, and what made you think 'STUIPD!' I want to know things like that! (:**

**-LoveAngel **


	4. Chapter 4: Mr Big and Beefy

Chapter 4: Mr. Big and Beefy  
  


"He's a stalker" was my first thought quickly followed by 'duck'. Ducking down in my Jeep I hid from their sight. Les was with his buddy from the other night and another guy. Turns out his buddy from the other night was bigger and scarier in the daylight. The new guy that was with Mr. Big and Beefy and Les, looked a lot like Les. The big difference being that his skin tone was darker and he looked older. Les looked about 22 and the new one looked about  
30. Mr. Big and Beefy looked about 36.

Covering most of my face with my dark blue hoodie I sunk lower in my seat as they walked on the sidewalk right in front of my Jeep. Les was punching the new guy in the arm as he let out a laugh.

_Good, he didn't see me._ I thought, trying hard not to move as he walked by. In a way I was right, Les hadn't seen me. On the other hand, Mr. Big and Beefy took a little too long looking at my car. I started to worry that he had figured out it was the same car but without the flat tire. Luckily he was being dragged inside by his friends. After about 10 minutes of me sitting there in utter terror and unsure what to do, they came out with bags of food to-go. Mr. Big and Beefy took another long look at my car before sending his friends on ahead.

_Oh crap, oh crap, OH CRAP! Please don't eat me. I'm really not that tasty. Shoo. Go away. No tasty girls in this car. Go away._ Turns out you can't make a person go away just by thinking thoughts like 'Shoo and 'go away'. Yeah I know, shocker

Mr. Big and Beefy waited until his friends were out of sight before walking up to my car. By this time I had covered as much of myself as I could with my hoodie as he was knocking on my window. Peeking out one eye I looked up at him.

_Yeah, Amora, I think he knows you're in here._

He made the sign for me to roll down my window. I made a sign that told him something along the lines of 'hell no'. He gave me a death glare that could have made a grown man wet his pants. Before doing the smart thing and rolling down my window I grabbed my gun from between the two front seats.

"What?" I spat out at him.

"Who are you?" He asked in a gruff voice.

"A human"

He gave me a look that clued me into the fact that he wasn't playing. Lifting my gun for him to see, I let him know that I wasn't really in a chit-chatty kind of mood.

"Go. Away."

"No."

A man of many words as you can see. I was hungry, and I needed to pee. I'm not in a mood to do this right now. Putting the gun at the small of my back I slipped on my jacket and grabbed my wallet. Before opening up my door, I thought I'd take a look at my life savings. Not nearly enough for pizza and gas. Hmph. Food or fuel? Oh the questions that haunt me deep in to the nights. Then it hit me. This happens to be one of the more stupid life moments of mine. I got out of my car.

"So look Mr. Big and Beefy, I'm hungry and I need to pee." I said opening my door and locking it behind me. "So why don't we go get some pizza, my treat, and I'll answer your question if you promise to then leave me alone."

"Fair enough." He said letting me pass in front of him as we walked into Pinos. We were seated in one of the back tables. After the waiter came and took our orders, then questioning started.

"Where did you grow up?"

"Ohio." I said without blinking.  
_Lie number one._

"Age?"

"Eighteen."  
_Lie number two._

"Why are you here?"

"Looking up some family and then off to the beach." There's some truth to every lie.  
_Lie number three._

"Oh, I just can't wait to get to the beach and soak up the son! And to swim! Oh my goodness! I just can't wait!" I gushed, always good to control the subject.

"What family?" I'm thinking he's not really buying what I'm selling…

"Oh just some family I haven't seen in a long time."  
_Like sixteen years long…_

"Why?"

"You should learn more words then 'why'." I said as the waiter came back with our food. I had ordered a coke, two slices of pizza with the works and some bread sticks. Hey, don't judge me. I hadn't eaten real food for almost two days. Plus, if everything worked out I wouldn't be paying. Mr. Big and Beefy was watching me intently as I scarfed down the food as fast as I could.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." I said not looking up from my food.

"Who's the family you're looking for?"

"The kind, which I share blood with. Duh!" I said in my most how-dumb-can-you-be voice.

"How would they be related to you?" He really doesn't give up.

"Through blood" I said looking around Pinos. Taking in my surroundings I saw  
that most of the people here were wearing cop outfits. Those who weren't in some kind of cop shin dig, looked just like normal families.

"Dad? Mom? Sister or brother? Aunt or maybe some granddad that you're hoping will hook you up with some money?" He asked firing the questions off like a gun.

I looked at him for a long moment before looking at my plate. I was down to  
the last few bites of the pizza while the bread sticks I was planning on  
hanging onto until later, sat in front of me.

"My dad's father. My dad's dying and he and his father never got along so I  
came here to find my granddad and take him to say… s-say goodbye one more time." I let my voice choke half way through and then let a few tears out like it was causing me some great pain to let him in on this.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry to hear that." He said as he gently put his hand  
on top of mine. My skin almost looked pale against his dark black skin. I pulled my hand back to wipe my 'tears' away. "It OK, I've known it was coming for a long time. It's just still hard to deal with." I sniffed looking like I was trying to pull myself together.

"I need to use the restroom." He said standing up "Don't move, I'll be right back."

The second the door shut behind him I had my bread sticks in my jacket and I was gone.

"Would you like to pay now or later?" Our waiter asked stopping me from leaving.

"Oh, I'm with that big black man. He's paying." I said smiling a dazzling smile up at him. And before he even had a chance to respond I was gone. Rushing out to my car, I had my keys in my hand and had looked back just in time to see Mr. Big and Beefy paying for my dinner. He turned and looked me dead in the eye. At that point it was time to run. My jeep was running and pulling away from the curb before he was out the door.

"Shit!" I heard him yell at me as I raced off.

**Authors Note: I would first like to say a big thanks to ****Emilie Martel, for being willing to look over my work before I post it so I don't look like a dumb butt! (: **

**Second, PLEASE. I beg of you! Let me know what you think! Post things that you would like to see happen, or what you thinks going to happen! It helps like SOOOO much! (: Promise!**

**Thirdly, who do yall think 'Mr. Big and Beefy' is?**

**-LoveAngel**


	5. Chapter 5: For Real?

**Chapter 5: For Real?**

It was now 9:37pm and I was in need of a bed. But let's be honest, I didn't have enough money for a motel. After I put gas in my tank, my life's savings was down to twenty bucks. Not enough for a room and I wasn't about to sleep somewhere where I was paying by the hour. Then I saw it: 'Wonderland'! The most amazing, beautiful, wonderful thing ever to a teenager on a tight budget. It was a 24 hour Wal-Mart. It was just what I needed.

Pulling into the parking lot, I jumped out of my car, making sure to lock my doors before heading inside. In a wonderful world like ours, you can buy pre-made sandwiches, bottled water, cookie dough, and a pillow for $15.63. Yes, we do live in a wonderful world!

Walking back outside, I looked into my bag as if it was Christmas morning. Hey, I had cookie dough. And now I didn't have to use my clothes as a pillow anymore.

As I walked over to my Jeep, I went to unlock my door, then it hit me. I didn't have my keys in my hand.

_Ok, Amora don't panic. They're more than likely just in one of your pockets._

Nope. Not there. Then I really started to panic. Looking through all my bags I couldn't find them. Then I saw them. My keys where on the driver's seat. OK, "look at the bright side", I told myself. I now know where the keys are and I can stop looking for them. I have my phone, so I can just call someone.

_Who to call?_

"So beautiful, if you're wondering who to call you could always call me. You know I'm great with tires but I'm sure I can work on locks too. But really, that's more of Mr. Big and Beefy's thing." Les stepped out of the darkness coming into view along with Mr. Big and Beefy and the other one. We all four stood there in silence each waiting for the other to make a move.

"Hi, I'm Bobby." The new one, or Bobby, said now stepping forward to shake hands.

"Amora" I said without thinking as I looked into the big grey eyes of Bobby.

"Amora, huh, that's a nice name." He said smiling down at me.

"Yeah, it works." That's about when it hit me. I had just given up my name without trying to lie to them or trick them. Oh shit!

"I still like the name Beautiful." Les said winking at me.

"You left me to pay the bill when said it was your treat." Mr. Big and Beefy looked pissed….

"Well, I have about five bucks. Will that cover it?" I asked looking into my wallet. I looked pretty deep into that thing. I was kind of hoping more money would show up but…

"It's OK Beautiful, I'll cover you." Les then grabbed my cookie dough.

_Jerk._

"What kind of name is Les?" I asked turning towards him.

"It's really Lester."

"Why are y'all following me? And how did y'all find me? I took that tracker off a long time ago. And give me the cookie dough. I'll trade the health crap for it." I gave them all my best pissed off look before trying to grab the cookie dough from Lester. He just jumped out of the way.  
_Jerk._

"We put a new one on." Bobby said shrugging.

"Why?" I repeated myself. Great, I was starting to sound like Mr. Big and Beefy.  
"Because you lied to us, no one likes to be lied to." Mr. Big and Beefy's deep gruff voice came from the darkness. "Or being left with the bill..."

"What's your name?" I asked turning and looking at him.

"Tank."

"Suits you. Now why are y'all following me?" I asked turning to Bobby. He seemed like my best bet for answers.

"Santos, has a crush, and needs to know how old you are. And Tank here doesn't like being left with the bill or being lied to when he's paying for the meal." He stated simply.

"Done!" I heard Lester shout from behind me.

"You're getting sloppy Santos. That took you two minutes man. What's going on in your head? That could have gotten us killed."

I was somewhat fascinated by Tank yelling at the poor guy.

"Hey, I don't think these are you're type of shoes, Beautiful." Lester said grabbing the shoe box.

"HELP!" I yelled as he started to open it. Don't ask. It was the first thing that came to my mind.

"What?" He asked looking up, the lid to the shoe box not yet opened.

"Oh, um, sorry, knee jerk reaction." I moved swiftly to him keeping eye contact before I took the box out of his hands. "Well boys it's been real and it's been fun. But it sure as hell hasn't been real fun." I said climbing into my car.

"Don't you need something, Beautiful?" Lester said waving the keys in front of me and then pulling them away as I reached for them.

"Bastard."

"Sticks and stones."

"Give them back." I said in a deadly tone as I let my face go blank. I knew that it was one of my more deadly looks.

"Not until we get answers." Bobby said stepping forward and taking the keys.

"Well, I want some answers of my own. How about you each get three questions and I get to ask you each three question? Then you give me my keys, walk away, and never look back?"

"Sounds fair." I heard Tank say.

"Age? Like what's your real age? Like the one on your birth certificate." Lester shouted out without even letting a second pass.

"I'm nineteen. Wouldn't you say these are the boobs of a nineteen year old Lester?" I said winking at him. He let out a moan then looked up at the sky. "Oh and Les dear, you used up your three questions"

_Are they REALLY not picking up on the lying? Huh. Didn't know I was THAT good… _

"Damn" He murmured

"My turn. Why did you lie to me at Piano's?" Tank asked stepping forward.

"I was hungry and out of food."

"Me next!" Bobby yelled "Um. Uh, well uh, could you, no… um..."

"Hurry up man!" I yelled at him making him startle.

"What's your favorite color?" He then got smacked on the back of the head by both Lester and Tank.

_Dumb Butt._

"Bright blue with black." I said easily

"That's hot." Lester said taking another huge bite out of MY cookie dough.

"Give it back." I said pouting at him reaching for the cookie dough.

"No, it's mine." He said lifting the cookie dough into the air.

"Why do you keep lying to us?" Tank wasn't even paying attention to me and Lester's childish game.

"Because y'all keep finding me, and I don't like people finding me, and I bought it Lester."

"Ninety percent of ownership is possession." Lester said sticking his tongue out at me.

"Why are you here?" Tank asked using his finial question.

"I already told you." I said looking down at my feet as I stopped trying to get the cookie dough. I had to pull out my best sad face if I sincerely wanted this lie to work. And this lie had to work.

Just then all three men's phones went off.

"Got to go Beautiful" Lester said kissing the top of my head as he handed me the cookie dough.

"What the hell? What about MY questions?" I was without a doubt pissed.

"Boss man calls sweetheart. Some other time though." Bobby said as he waved at me before slipping into the black SUV. Then all three of them were off, and that's about when I came to terms with the fact that dear ole Lester still had my keys.

Something's about a car I didn't get. Like changing the oil or a tire, I didn't understand. Filling the tank with gas or hotwiring, those types of things I got. Most of my bad habits I had gotten from my ex, Eli. He didn't even have to show me how to hotwire a car. I just saw him do it once and I was a pro.

It was now around 9:45am. I had slept in my car so I didn't need to hotwire it yet. Eli had never been a good boyfriend. He had been my first real hug, my first real date, my real first kiss, my first real boyfriend. Or so I had thought…

_Don't think about him Amora, stay strong._ I told myself as I cut the wires under my dash board.

On today's to-do list was:

Get food

Go back to Pinos

Find out about Ranger

Try to get a real bed tonight

If number 4 cannot be completed, find place without hobos.

If you ask me, it was a pretty good list.

Pulling in to Pinos, I wasn't really sure what I was going to ask. "Hi, have you seen this man? I'm pretty sure he was in here 17 years ago. If the picture doesn't help, he might look somewhat like me." Just didn't seem quite right.

Pinos looked the same as it had the other day. Same cops, same families. I really didn't know what I was going to do, but after two cokes I knew what I needed to do. Ducking into the bathroom, I took care of my business. Turning the water off I did that little hand shake kind of thing you do when there are no paper towels to dry your hands on.

Turning to walk out I ran in to someone. She was almost 5'7 with curly brown hair and blue eyes. In a way she pretty. But at this moment in time it looked like she had just been hit over the head with a frying pan. Her eyes looked all glassy and she was walking like a drunk. Then I saw the fresh hickey and guessed that it wasn't a frying pan but she had just got some.

Walking out of the bathroom, I got the feeling like I was looking at myself only it was a different me. Like an older, guy me. He had the same skin color, same nose, same eye shape and same type of hair as me.

It turns out, I look a lot more like my father then I thought.

**Authors Note: YAY! (: I kind of left yall with a cliff hanger there! (:**

**I already have two more chapters after this one written up! Sooo comment and clue me in too you're thinking on this story and I will be posting more soon! (:**

**-LoveAngel**


	6. Chapter 6: I Ate My Veggies!

Chapter 6: I Ate My Veggies for Crying Out Loud!

I took one more glimpse at him before walking away.

"Are you ready to pay?" The same guy from yesterday asked me as I started to leave.

"Oh shoot! I left my purse in the lady's room, one second I'll be right back, promise!" I smiled walking back towards the bathroom.

_How dumb can you be to really believe that?_ I thought walking away from him.

Not making eye contact with the man I knew to be my father I walked back in to the bathroom only to bump in to the girl from earlier.

_'Stupid, Stupid, STUPID'_ is what the good-side of me was saying. _'You don't have a choice' _is what street raised-side of me was saying.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie." She said sticking out her hand.

We were still standing pretty close to each other from where we had bumped in. So I accidentally 'stumbled' some more as I stuck out my hand to shake hers and lifted her wallet from her pocket.  
_You'll pay her back one day_. I told myself to hide the guilt I knew would come.

"Hi, I'm Amora. Sorry, I'm such a klutz! It's my first time in town, so I guess the airs getting to me!"  
_That's lame!_ I yelled at myself on the inside as I smiled on the outside

"Nice to meet you, don't worry in just a few short days will have you breathing like a real New Jerseyer!" Damn. She was nice.

"Good to know there's hope for me yet!" I said turning to wash my hands.

We both left the bathroom at the same time, only difference I kept walking and she went over to get friendly with Ranger. Paying for my bill, with Stephanie's money, I went back to hang low in my car. I only had to wait for about 30 minutes before they both came out of the building and got in to Manoso's car. It was weird that even in my head, I didn't know what to call him.

I let two cars pass before I pulled out. It was easy to stay far back and follow, Manoso was the only one driving a brand new black Porsche cayenne. They drove for 10 minutes before pulling in to an underground parking zone. I didn't stop but kept driving. I circled the block once before finding a parking place and sitting in for the long haul.

At 7:10 on the dot I watched as Lester and Bobby walked out of the building and down the road.  
_What the hell?_

Now this was just getting weird! My stalkers and my dad worked with each other? Oh. Crap. Then it hit me, if Lester, Bobby and Tank where all rent-a-thugs, and they worked with my dad… That means my dad's a rent-a-thug; Lovely, just lovely.

Watching the two walk away I grabbed a piece of paper and the wallet I had taken from Stephanie and wrote a quick note.

_**Stephanie,**_

_**I owe you $7.67**_

_**-Will Pay Back**_

Pulling my hoody up to cover my face I ran inside the front of the building.

"Hi, does Ranger work here?" I asked the guy at the front desk.

"Um, yeah..." The guy looked a little on the slow.

"Can I leave this here for his, um friend, Stephanie, to pick up. It's her wallet." I said holding it up for him to see.

"Oh yeah, Stephanie's cool. She does the boss man and it makes us ALL happy if you catch my drift."  
_Great. I had taken money from a hooker. Just great._

"Yeah, well I've got to go..." I said before heading out.

After about another 30 minutes of listing to my iPod and thinking, I had come up with two things.

My butt hurt

I had no clue why I was watching this building

Then there was a loud knock from my passengers' window. Almost jumping out of my seat I looked over at Lester who was standing there with a big grin on his face.

"Hey Beautiful!" he said before opening the door and climbing in next to me. Lester was wearing dark jeans with a button down black shirt, he looked like he was ready to go clubbing.

"Why me? I was always a somewhat good child! I never drank on a school night! I only did drugs on Saturdays. I always showed up for tests and never cheated on a test… well a few times but they don't count… And I ALWAYS ate my veggies. So why me?" I yelled towards the heavens. I was kind of hoping for a reply but I only heard Lester's deep, cheerful, voice next to me.

"You ate your veggies? Wow! You must have been like a saint or something!"

"Hey, that can all change with one bullet…" I said glaring over at him.

"Psh, Beautiful, you would first need a gun"

"Don't tempt me."

"Let's see it then, you know, the gun you're going to shoot me with."

"It's a .22LR handgun" I said pulling out the gun from underneath my seat. I was a little more than proud of my gun. OK, so it might not have the best rap sheet, and it might have been used in a gang fighting. But hey, you can't just judge it on its past!

"You got me all jealous Beautiful. May I?" he said holding out his hand.

"May I shoot with it? Yeah I guess so." I said before tucking it away. "Now why are you in my car?"

"I want to know why you've been sitting out here since 6:45. It's now 9. Hey! It's your shoes again!" He said pulling out the shoe box.  
_Can you say A.D.D much?_

"Give that here and I'll leave." I said as I reached for the box

"No, I want to know what type of shoes these are. There size 11s for crying out loud! You're a size 8 at best sweetie!"

At the same time I reached for the shoe box, Lester held the box as far away as he could, then both the driver's side door and the passenger's door opened in the same moment. Tank was on my side grabbing me as I lunged across Lester for the shoe box which was now being held by non-other than Ranger.

Ranger looked a lot like he had in his picture from 16 years ago. If I had to guess I would say he was about 36 maybe 37. He was handsome in away. Dressed in all black and with his dark skin, he looked like he could fade in to the night.

"Report" He said opening the shoe box lid.

"NO!" I yelled at him trying to struggle free of Tanks vise like grip.

He looked up at my terror-stricken face with an eyebrow raised. Then he stopped all together. He looked at me as if he had just really seen me. He took in my face, my looks, my skin color and my eyes before he cussed softly under his breath.

"_Dios!_"

**Authors Note: I don't know anything about guns! So I'm letting Google help me on that, so please forgive me if I have no clue what I'm talking about when it comes to guns, and if it shows! **

**I would also like to thank ****Barb4psu for giving me an amazing input on this chapter! (:**

**So, please indulge me in your thoughts on this chapter and there will be more soon! :D **

**-LoveAngel**


	7. Chapter 7: Oh Dear Lord, He's OCD

**Chapter 7: Oh Dear Lord. He's OCD.**

Tank half dragged me and half let me walk back to the building with Ranger in the lead. We went in the same way I had when I had returned the wallet. Ranger hit the button on the elevator and we all climbed in. The ride was slow, awkward and somewhat silent. Well it would have been completely silent but I was humming.

"And we both go down together  
We'd stay there forever  
Just try to get up  
And I'm sorry  
This wasn't easy  
When I asked you, believe me  
And never let go..." I sang quietly under my breath as the elevator made its way up.

"Where are we going? You know it's against the law to hold someone against their will. I have rights you know." None of the men's looks or stances changed to indicate that they had heard me. The elevator finally beeped on floor five. The floor was deathly quiet. There where people working everywhere, yet the silences suffocated you. It was kind of bizarre.

Ranger led our little group to the back of the floor and into his office. I knew it was his office, because you don't just give anyone a huge office like this to anyone. Plus the name plate on the desk didn't give it away that this was his office or anything, if that's what you're thinking. His office had nice, warm colors, but the room was huge! He had one wall that was just a window and another wall held all kinds of books and glass cabinets with guns. He had a huge dark cherry wood desk. But everything was so orderly and clean. The saying 'everything had a place and everything was in its place' was taken to extremes here.

"Are you OCD or something?" I blurted out after looking over his desk. He ignored me.

_The meany._

"OK, so explain how you got these pictures." Ranger said from behind his desk as I sat in one of the two chairs on the other side of his desk with Tank in the other. Ranger had his unreadable face on as he held up the picture of him and my mother.

"Anya gave them to me." I said as I sat down slouching in my chair before putting my feet up on his desk and crossing my ankles. I don't think he had expected me to use my mother's first name.

"Why?"

_Huh. I see where Tank learned how to talk._

"Because I robbed them off of her because taking money and jewelry is so last year. It's all the new rage to take personal pictures" I gave him my best you're an idiot look. "She's my mom. Want to guess who the daddy is?" My face was blank. It wasn't because I was trying to hide something; it was because I wasn't sure what I should be feeling so I went with nothing.

Ranger's face was still blank but now it was wasn't so much blank because he wanted it to be, it was more like it was blank the sheer horror of that thought.

"There's a reason they teach you how to use condoms in Sex-Ed." I hoped I looked and sounded relaxed, because on the inside, I was a mess.

_He won't want anything to do with you, even if it's something simple like letting you use his address._ A small voice inside told me. I told that voice to shut up or else it would have to leave.

_Great Amora, now you're talking to yourself. Just dandy!_

"Santos, Brown." He barked out, apparently he didn't need any more words than that. His eyes face was a mask with no emotions. Lester stood to leave and Bobby came over and plucked a hair from me.

Rubbing the sore spot I looked up at him "Owe. What the hell?"

Bobby just grimaced "Sorry, I have to take it to the lab."

"Why?" I asked puzzled

"Um, just too … uh, you know… See how healthy you are…."

_Did they really think I was making this up?_

"Yes, because I really just walk up to random people and give them some story about me being their child." I'm really starting to wonder if they skipped the whole learning thing and were just born rent-a-thugs.

"Beautiful, I believe you're his kid-o. Don't worry!" Lester said with a wink.

"Psh, you would believe whatever I said if you thought it would help you get in my pants!" I was smiling over at him; nothing would ever happen between us so it was fun to joke around with him. Then through the open door I saw the girl from the bathroom.

_Oh crap. What was her name? It was like Stacy wasn't it? No, that's from that song… Stacy's mom has got it going on… Stacy, can't you see you're just not the girl for me I know it might be wrong but I'm in love with Stacy's mom..._

I wasn't really focusing on everything since I was singing in my head so it wasn't until she walked in to the room, I realized that Ranger looked more clam.

"Hey Santos, did I hear you talking about me?" She had an easy smile and kind eyes.

_Huh, so Lester really didn't have that much originality… Shocker!_

Lester grinned down at her. "Sorry Steph, I gotta go. We need to go catch a skip soon though. I haven't been in any life threatening situations in the last four days; I figure I'm about due for one." Then he and Bobby where walking down the hall.

"It wasn't my fault!" She yelled after them. "Oh, hello Amora"

"Hey Stephanie" I said with a somewhat sheepish grin.

"It's nice to see you again. Um, so Ranger I actually wanted to know if you could come to a dinner with me tonight. It's black tie." She asked hopefully.

Ranger had an easy smile when Stephanie was around. The mask was gone and you could see him, the real him. He cut his eye to me before looking back at Stephanie. "What time?"

"Nine sharp"

"I'll try my best not to miss it Babe." He turned his attention back to me in a clear dismissal of Stephanie.

"Um, well there's one more thing." She looked nervous. She was chewing on her lower lip and fiddling with her hands. Ranger looked back over to her before nodding his head.

"Well, it's a benefit for the Firemen, and I ended up with a table for eight. Don't ask. And it wasn't my fault. But uh well, um, you might want to give Hal a raise. Just a thought. Or give him medical leave… Yeah medical leave would probably be best…" She said quickly before continued "But I already have Tank and Lula, Marry Lou and her husband, me and you but that only makes six."

"Babe." Ranger still had a grin from Stephanie suggesting that he give Hal medical leave.

"I need two more people Ranger! Keep up. I thought you where the smart one."

It was the first time I saw someone not be this meek little person around Ranger and it was pretty awesome.

"And?" Ranger repeated raising an eyebrow.

"Do you know of a couple that could fill the two seats?"

"OH, what about me and Amora here?" Lester said coming out of nowhere and poking his head in to the room.

"She's sixteen Santos! _Dios_! What the hell Santos, do you want me to kill you?"

"Oh, only a year then." Lester said with a grin.

"No you idiot. Two years! Two years Santos. And even then I'll kill you." Ranger said glaring over at Lester. Even though Lester's pants are black, I'm pretty sure I just saw him wet them.

"But that is kind of a good idea." Stephanie said while still chewing on her bottom lip.

"No." Ranger said simply.

"Who are you anyways?" Stephanie said turning to me.

"Stephanie I really need to talk to Amora alone right now. We'll talk later Babe." Ranger answered quickly, I think he wanted to answer before I could…

"Yeah. Sure… Oh, and have you seen my wallet? I think I must have lost it during lunch or something."

"Yeah, check the front desk before you leave." Ranger said looking at me with a twinkle in his eyes.

I just sunk lower into my seat.

"I want to know everything Ranger." She said before turning on her heel and leaving.

**Authors Note: First, big thanks to ****Emilie Martel & Barb4psu for helping me edit and not look like a fool when I post these chapters! (:**

**Next, I just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that Lesters only 22 in this story. He's not the same age as Ranger or Stephanie and the rest of the gang. Just to clear that up! And sorry if it weird's anyone out that he's flirting with someone 6 years younger than him. My parents have a 15 year gap so I never really thought about age as being a big deal… **

**Thirdly, this is just kind of a filler chapter, and the next one will have a butt load of answers and will cause even more questions to come up! (: **

**Lastly, PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Review and clue me in on your thoughts! Tell me where you think this story is going to go and stuff like that! (: **

**-LoveAngel**


	8. Chapter 8: Some Kid's are Idiots

**Chapter 8: Some Kid's are Idiots.**

"All right, one more time from the top. My mom got married at the age of eighteen. Nine months later, she popped out my brother. Ten months after that she gave birth to my sister. Do you follow so far? Well the marriage was going to the dogs, so to speak. My mother then got in touch with you. You're like some old lover or something to her. Well as it turns out, sixteen years ago you did the nasty with one Anya Castle. Nine months later yours truly popped out. Her husband was out of the country when I was born, and my mom thought you should know, so when her hubby was gone she came to see you. I don't think she ever got to see you 'cause I'm pretty sure she got busy giving birth to me. Well, then for some reason she went back to Virginia and always passed me off as her husband's kid. She came all the way up here, gave birth to me then didn't tell you then went back home. But um, I think you should know that you're name is the one on my birth certificate." I said before reaching into my pocket and pulling out the folded up piece of paper. "I know that's not your hand writing on there because I know that it's Anya's."

"So why are you just coming to look for me now?" He asked looking me over before turning his attention to the paper I was handing to him.

"Anya had cancer. She died of it when I was fourteen. And I don't want anything from you if that's what you're thinking. I've managed to take care of myself for sixteen years and I can keep on taking care of myself. I don't need your help if that's what you're thinking I'm here for. I didn't come here looking for some father, that I could bond with and crap." I wanted him know straight up how it was before he started thinking that I was just here to collect on a debt due to me, since you know I was kind of at the least fifty percent him.

"So why did you wait two years before coming to look for me?" He was calm and didn't look in the least bit upset or happy or any other kind of emotion you would think he would have after my little speech. Nope, nothing at all, just that blank mask.

"I… well um…" _Be forward, no real reason to hold back_. I thought. "Well yeah, I kind of have a criminal record and now that I have no home, so nobody in their right mind would hire me. I need a job to get money, and I need money to basically live. And I was kind of hoping that you would let me use whatever address you have so that I could have something to put down on any job application that I apply for…" I couldn't meet his eyes and my reason in this instant sounded lame now that I had voiced it.

"Where are you staying?" He never showed that he had my last statement.

"My car's backseat." I gave him a shrug like this was of no importance to this conversation. He looked like he was about ready to ask some more questions when his phone started to ring. He answered it but didn't say anything into it.

_Great phone manners, I see._

Before Ranger closed his phone after he told whoever that he would be there in five. He looked between me sitting slouched with my feet on his desk, and the door the lead to the rest of the building. Then he did something really weird. He came over to where I was sitting and just looked in to my eyes. I think he was looking for something, probably something like 'this-is-all-one-big-lie-to-give-you-a-heart-attack'.

"Shit." He muttered softly. "Follow." He said to me after he had gotten three guns out of his gun case and put them on his body.

Being the wonderful, obedient child that I am, I followed. He led me to an area that had a bunch of different monitors and other high tech type of stuff. There were four guys sitting around looking at the screens. I only recognized two of them, Lester and Tank, but the other two looked like they were the poster children for rent-a-thugs, so they fit right in with everyone else around here.

"Sit."

_Talk about a man of many words_.

"Pushy. Geez!" I said before plopping down in the only chair left. He looked into my eyes one more time before walking away.

"Hey. What the hell?" I yelled at him.

"Sit." He said turning around and pointing a finger at me.

Jumping up from my chair I put my hands on my hips before giving him my best 'did-you-really-just-do-that' look. "Oh no, you didn't! I am not some dog you can just tell to sit and stay."

"OK, I don't know much about kids, just sit. Stay and don't do any drugs or anything while I'm gone." He looked somewhat exasperated as he said this. What was really sad was this was the most I had heard him talk at one time.

"Dude, I'm 16. I'm not a kid anymore, and you're a little late on the whole 'don't do drugs' talk." I said before sitting down and turning my back to him.

Everyone just sat there in silence while they made clicking noises on their various computers.

_Well this is boring._ I thought as I sat in my chair twiddling my thumbs. That soon got boring so I started to spin around in the chair. That just made me dizzy. Next I took to sighing.

"Stop." Tanks deep voice came from behind me.

"But I'm bored!" I whined, OK I was being kind of childish but between not having slept in a real bed for the past week and having spent most of the day sitting in my car, I was getting a bit nutty right about now. Tank just kept quiet.

"So where did he go?" I asked trying to keep the conversation going.

"Down to the gym." It was Lester who answered this time.

"Why?"

"Because Beautiful, he wanted and needed to work out some stuff."

_Well that's as clear as mud._

"You know I think she's the closest to looking like Ranger than any of the other ones." This came from one of the new guys that I didn't know. *There was a flaming skull tattooed on his forehead and muscles in places that aren't supposed to have muscles.* He had short dark hair and dark eye that were dull. Tank and Lester both shot him looks before going back to work.

"What do you mean I look more like Ranger then the other ones? What 'other ones'?" Now I was really confused.

"Hon, you're not the first kid to come along and say that Ranger's your dad. Heck, you're not even going to be close to the last." He had a rusty voice like he didn't use it much or something.

Tank looked over at him with a 'shut up' look before saying "That's enough Cal."

"Why would anyone want 'him' as a father? I mean, my mom always taught me to see the good in people, and I'm sure somewhere really deep down he's a nice guy, but he's not a fatherly like figure. Why would people pretend he's their dad?" This was all really too confusing.

Lester gave me a really puzzled look before he asked "What do you think we do here?"

"I don't know some kind of rent-a-thug stuff?"

"The fancy way of putting it is that we're security experts. What do you think Ranger does?" It was the first time I had seen Lester serious. Like dead serious, and this didn't even make any sense.

"Um, security expert stuff?" I said taking a stab in to thin air.

Tank stopped what he was doing and turned to look at me. "How high up in this business do you think he is?"

"I don't know probably pretty high to have an office like that."

"He's the boss, Beautiful. He's one that owns this whole business." Lester was watching me like he was waiting for something to click. It didn't.

"OK, so?"

_So he was the boss? Big whoopdy do._

"There are three more offices like this one. One in Boston and the others is in Florida. He owns them all. Now do you get it?"

"He has a lot frequent flyer miles racked up?" I said in an unsure tone.

All four guys turned to stare at me. It was the first time I had seen these big strong guys look dumbfounded.

"He's rich. Like stinken filthy rich. He's rolling around in the stuff." Lester said to me while looking at me like I was daft for not figuring that out.

"So what does that have to do with him and kids trying to pass themselves off as his kid?"

None of this was making the least bit of sense to me. So he had money. So he had a successful business. But what did this all have to do with kids wanting to pretend he was there father? He had money, but he didn't really seem like the loving type. The only way to have a successful business is if you put hard long hours in to it. That would mean he's never around.

Then it hit me. Kids wanted to be his kid, because of those things. If he had a successful business, he had lots of money. This also meant that he would never be around to be all those things. A father that gives a crap, that wants to know what's going on in school, to be there to tell you "no, don't go out with that guy", and to get that midnight call from the police station. Someone that you could trust and love, and knew beyond a showdown of a doubt that he would be there, no matter what. All the things I never had and would have loved.

_How idiotic can these kids be?_ I thought to myself before looking into Lester's eyes and nodding. I knew what he was talking about now. And even though I tried really hard, I don't think I kept the pain out of my eyes as I thought back to how John had treated me.

Lester then continued talking "Kids come up all the time and say they're his kid and that he owes them something. Money, a car, one even asked for a job. Well, they never get to him. They're always sent to the lab and if their DNA matches Ranger's, they get to talk with him. Otherwise, they're just sent on their way."

"So why wasn't I just sent to the lab and then to Ranger?"

After a long pause Tank said "I've known Ranger the longest. We were friends back before we joined the army. I even meet your mother once. It was pretty clear you're their child when we sat down to lunch the other day."

"You knew my mother?" That was a bit of a shocker.

"Yeah. She was a good person." Tank said looking me in the eye before going back to his work.

"Yeah, I know." I murmured softly.

After about 10 minutes of us sitting there in silence Lester jumped up and said, "Come on Beautiful, let's go play a game."

"You know, I have a name, and it's not 'beautiful'."

"I just call it like I see it." He said with a wink before grabbing something out of his desk and leading me into what looked like a break room. "Here. Shuffle these cards. I'll be right back."

It only took him two minutes before he was returning with four other guys, one of which I recognized as Cal. How can you miss the flaming skull tattooed on his forehead?

"This is Hal, Junior and Silvio. And of course you've already meet Cal." Lester said as he took the cards from me and the other men all took a seat around the round table. "Now who's up for a good game of poker?" He said after dealing us each two cards and placing five cards in the middle.

_Oh, this is about to get interesting!_

"I don't think I can play. I only have two dollars left. And I really haven't played in a while…" I said giving Lester a big eyed innocent look.

"Well, all of us are gentlemen, so how about we play one game, no bets and the second game, well… I'm sure we can make a trade instead of money." Lester said with a grin. No, before you say it. It wasn't a sexual grin like 'Let's trade a 'BJ'. It was more of an 'I've had a plan all along' grin.

"OK. I guess that sounds fair." I said before I picked up my cards.

The first round was over quickly. Lester and Silvio were really aggressive players while Hal and Junior where much more conservative players. Silvio had won but it was close between him and Lester. I on the other hand had lost miserably. But hey, that was all a part of the plan right?

"So ready to try again, Beautiful?" Lester said as he gathered the cards back up.

"I don't know… I'm really not that good. Plus I'm probably ruining your guy time…" I said letting my voice trail off.

"Nonsense darling! We love having someone here that knows how to use a little D.O for their B.O" Silvio said from the other side of the table.

"Ha well when you put it like that! Well I guess I'll play… But only one more game! Then I'm out of yalls hair."

Four games later, I owed Lester sixty bucks.

"You're doing fine, Amora. I'm sure you'll catch the gist of the game soon." Lester sounded a little bit worried. I think he thought he wasn't going to get his money back.

Lester and Silvio had both won two games, and Hal had gotten lucky and won one. But now it was time for me to start playing. I had gathered all the information I needed.

"Lester. I just want to play one more game. Do you think I can borrow twenty-five more dollars?" I asked giving him my big doe eyes.

He faltered only a second before digging out his wallet and giving me, two 10s and a 5. Lester then dealt us all two cards again before putting five cards down on the table. He took a deep breath as he looked over his cards. He had a bad hand.

I moved my gaze to Silvio whose nose had just gotten bigger. I don't know how he did it, but every time he had a set of aces in his hand, his nose would get bigger. Ace equals instant win in his mind.

Hal didn't do anything. He just sat there his eyes looking anywhere but at his cards.

_Bad hand._ I thought as turned my gaze on to Junior. He was taping his left hand fingers on the back of his cards, had it been his right hand, he would have had some good cards. This meant that he thought he had a chance, but really probably didn't.

It only took two rounds before Hal folded. It was only a round after that, that Junior followed suit. I on the other hand had really started playing and was holding my own between Lester and Silvio.

"So are you going to fold Beautiful so that the big kids can play?" Lester was trying to tease but he was a little too nervous to really pull it off.

"I'm actually going to raise you and put my last twenty in to the pot." I was calmly sitting in my chair with my legs crossed in my seat and my face showing nothing other than tranquility.

"I'll raise that to forty." Silvio caught on faster than I did, in fact he knew a thing or two more than I was letting on about Poker. We both turned to look at Lester. He was still looking at his cards. He took about another minute before he put down forty as well. Now it was back to me.

"Lester, can I borrow some more money?"

"Nope, sorry Beautiful." He said with a grin.

"So… Um, does anyone else want to hook me up with some money? Promise I'll pay you back."

Everyone was silent.

_Bastards._

"Well, you know you could put in those love letters from Ranger if you want…" Lester said slowly. Ah. So this had been his plan all along.

_Ok Amora, organize. If you win you get what?_

A) Money,

B) Pay off Lester,

C) The letters back.

All these things sounded pretty good to me. _OK Amora, what's on the downside?_

A) Lester or Silvio get the letters.

B) I wouldn't have any money.

C) Couldn't pay back Lester.

All bad things in my book. I looked at my cards again before saying "OK, if I put in the letters then y'all would need to make a raise as well. I think each letter is worth at the least twenty bucks. I have 18 letters. That's $360 dollars." I started to look panicked. Inside I was calm. This was just a show for the guys.

"You know what, let's just all quietly take our money and walk away." I had my eyes darting around the room as if I was a trapped animal with no way out.

"Nah Beautiful, you can fold of course, but we'll see it to the end." Lester was now leaning forward. He thought he had caught me in a corner with no way out.

I looked like I was letting the words sink in before nodding.

_Good, I've got them hooked now._

"The letters are in Rangers office. I'll go get them." I got up from the table taking my cards with me as Lester started to count out $360 dollars and Silvio started to write a check.

When I came back with the letters, Lester had made small stacks of twenty dollar bills and Silvio's check was on top. Adding my letters to the loot I looked around now back to my calm self.

_Idiots. _

Lester took in my face before muttering "Shit" under his breath.

Lester was the first to flip his cards. He had four sixes. Not bad, but not good enough compared to what I had. I was sitting pretty high right now with a small smile playing across my lips.

Silvio looked over at me, smiling full out. It was now his turn to lay down his cards.

_Oh crap. Gulp._

**Authors Note:**

*** From Janet Evanovichs website.**

**Little cliffy there for yall! (: I want to say sorry for not posting for the past few days! **

**But this chapter is bit longer then the others so that should make up for some of it! (: Its 3,156 words with out the Authors Note! (:**

**Thanks to all those who looked over and helped me with this chapter! (: Couldn't have done it without them! :D **

**Also, please forgive me if it shows that I dont know anything about Poker, besides what google can provide.**

**Because truth it, I dont know crap about Poker! But I have always wanted to learn! (:**

**Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! And who all thinks she won the game?**

**-LoveAngel**


	9. Chapter 9: Today Wasn't Someday

**Chapter 9: Today Wasn't Someday.**

After Silvio laid down his hand I smiled broadly at them all. Silvio had a straight flush.

"You know the odds of this are something like 30939 to 1? Something in that ball park anyways." I said as I laid down my Royal Flush before gathering the money to me and counting it.

"You tricked us!" Silvio yelled standing up and causing his chair to be thrown against the wall behind him.

"Sorry sugar boo, I don't cheat. It's beneath me." I said smiling sweetly up at him. "Here Lester, here's $85 dollars."

"You tricked us." Silvio repeated still stunned out of his wits.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you think just because I'm a 16-year-old girl I don't know how to play a good round of Poker."

Everyone was stunned into silence as Silvio and I held each other's gazes. The silence was broken as we heard clapping coming from right behind me. I turned and meet Rangers gaze before giving him a short nod.

"Nice." was all he said.

"You're just going to let her take our money?" Lester said looking incredulous.

"You're the one that was dumb enough to bet with her. If she could really take your money that easily then you didn't need it to start with." Ranger said before turning and walking away.

**Rangers Point of View**

Time - 6:37.

Date – Friday August 6th.

Three hours and three minutes until I had to meet Stephanie. Three hours and three minutes for me to figure this all out with Amora. Three hours and three, minutes before I had to tell Steph, that I had another child.

I sat back and watched Amora play my men right out of their money. She put on an incredible act. If I hadn't already seen her cards I wouldn't have believed it myself. She made her face look innocent, like she had no idea what bad really was and that she couldn't tell a lie if her life depended on it. Yet, it had been that very lie that had insured her win.

The call I had gotten when I left her was from Bobby down in the lab. The test results weren't complete, but it was starting to look like I had another child. And truthfully, it scared the hell out of me.

Julie had been completely different. Julie had a real family. She had friends and dad that loved her already. All that was ever needed from me was the money I gave. And even that was really nothing, compared to all that I had. I paid for her to go to the best private school around, and made sure she always had an unlimited debt card. Giving her that was nothing really, just a way to ease my guilt over never being there for her. Money never meant anything to me, and I don't think it ever will.

But Amora was so different. Amora had no one. If she had friends, she wouldn't be here. If she had a family, she would be with them. If she had anyone in her life that loved her, she would be with them. If she had money, she wouldn't be here.

Yeah I wanted kids, _someday_. I wanted to start a family with Stephanie, _someday_. I wanted a child that I could love, call my own and protect, _someday_. But not today, not now. Today wasn't my someday.

Then there was Stephanie. Stephanie had broken up with the cop six months ago, and since then we had been sharing a bed. And she wasn't ever going back to him. I had ruined her for all other men. But now, it was the same for me. I would never be able to think about another woman or even look at another one, without thinking about Stephanie. Julie had been easy for her to accept, Julie wasn't in my life in any way. Julie didn't need care or love from me. Julie wasn't here in Trenton, and in need of my help.

Walking into my office I found Tank sitting in one of the leather arm chairs. I had expected this. He knew we needed to talk. Sitting down behind my desk I looked over at him.

"Bobby said the DNAs 78% positive, but the tests arent done. But hell, you don't even need the DNA, you just have to look at her. She looks so much like me it scares the hell out of me. Even Julie never looked that much like me. I've seen men's body tortured beyond any point of recognizing them, men burned alive, a mothers face as I killed her only son, and none of that haunts me as much as seeing myself in that girl." I said looking at my hands, before pinching the bridge between my nose.

"Having a kid isn't all bad man. Plus she's already passed the diaper stage, so that's a plus. God, at least I hope she's out of the diaper stage." Tank said with a grin.

I didn't need words for my reply to Tank. The look I gave him meant that I wasn't playing and in no mood to joke.

Tank took in my look before nodding and giving me his no non-sense look "So what are you going to do man?"

"I have to go to this dinner with Stephanie tonight. No getting out of that. And I guess I should take her with me. Let Stephanie see Amora again in a more public place, and then when we get back here later, we'll all talk."

"And if Stephanie doesn't accept her?"

"Then she isn't the same woman who I fell in love with three years ago." I stated coldly.

The thought had crossed my mind. If Steph couldn't accept Amora, then I had a plan. I would send Amora to live with my sister. It wasn't the best idea, but my adoration for Stephanie outweighed that of responsibility to Amora. I gave Tank a nod letting him know that our discussion was over before turning to my work

At 7:30 precisely I shut down my lap top and went to locate Amora. I found her, Lester and Silvio all down in the gym on treadmills. I leaned against the door frame trying to figure out why they were all down here running.

"Come on Beautiful, you're slowing down on us!" Lester said as he hit a button to make the treadmill go faster.

"I'm keeping up just fine thank you. It looks like Silvio will be the first to go." Her voice was calm and steady for someone running at her pace.

I walked over to her machine and hit the cool down button. "Amora needs to come with me right now." I said looking between Lester and Silvio.

"What's up?" Amora asked as she followed me out of the gym and in to the elevator. Looking her over I saw that sweat drenched most of her face, back and arms before she wipped her face on the sleeve of her T-shirt.

My chest tightened as I heard her mother's voice as she spoke. It was a voice I hadn't heard in, well hell, in 16 long years.

"You're going to come with me tonight to the dinner party." I said before the doors opened up to floor 7. Unlocking the door I let Amora in before going to the kitchen and placing my gun and keys on the table.

"Um, do you really think it wise to take me with you?" She asked as she hesitantly took a step into my kitchen keeping her eyes focused on the floor in front of her. Looking at her I saw for the first time a girl who felt really and truly alone in this big world who was unsure of herself. Her guard had slipped. The face that she had put on so well for everyone, leading everyone to believe that she was tough and didn't need anyone, wasn't the real Amora.

"Yeah I do. So tell me why you and two of my men were down in the gym running?" I saw her blush some as I asked this.

"Well you see, they said something about girls being good at some things and guys being good at others so that's why I won the poker game. I merely adamantly argued the point that woman can do whatever men can. They then thought it would be smart to challenge that, the idoits. So we ended up in the gym trying to see who could outrun who." She had hidden any true feelings by the end of this discourse. All her confidence and self-assurance was back, the difference was that now I knew it was all just another face she put on for the world.

"Oh, Dios! ¿Qué voy a hacer con Este Niño?" I muttered quickly and softly under my breath in Spanish while looking up at to the sky. (Oh God! What am I to do with this young child?)

I looked at her to see her giving me a confused look with all kinds of questions in her eyes. Well, it was actually more like my eyes. I left the kitchen and made my way to my bedroom to call Ella.

"Ella, I need a dress for Amora to be up here in about 15 minutes. Also shoes and whatever else she would need for the dinner tonight. Can you mange that?" After hearing her conformation I hung up. Turning around I saw Amora standing in my doorway looking around the room as if trying to take it all in.

"Do you want to take a shower before we leave? You have about 15 minutes before my house keeper gets here with anything that you'll need for tonight." Even from across the room I saw her eyes sparkle at the idea of clean clothes and a shower. Leaving her in my bathroom I walked to my office to take care of some last minute things.

It was 8:30 when I heard the water shut off. Thirty minutes until Stephanie got to meet my daughter. Thirty minutes.

**Amoras Point of View**

The shower was huge! And I'm not sure if it was because it had been so long since last I had a shower, but that shower was the best shower I have ever had, and I'm pretty sure, that will be the best shower I will ever have in my lifetime. Stepping out of the shower I found a huge fluffy white rob on the back of the bathroom door. It smelled nice, like the shower gel that I had found while taking my shower.

I was hesitant as to what I should do next. I slowly opened the door and peeked out. Sitting on his bed was a note in the same long elegant hand writing like that of my mother's love letters said '_Amora_'. Underneath the note was a short forest green dress. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It hit right above my knees and had spaghetti straps that crossed across my back. The neckline wasn't very low, but it did show a hint of cleavage. On the torso it was pretty tight-fitting, but as the dress went down it spread out more. Under the dress was a set of matching black panties and a strapless bra, along with some simple black heels.

_Oh lord, I hope his house keeper, picked out my underwear. _The thought of him picking out my bra was the creepiest thing I had ever thought about.

Using my amazing deductive and reasoning skills, I figured the clothes were for me. Taking them back into the bathroom with me, I got changed. My hair had been towel dried and now hung in waves around my face enhancing my green eyes. Looking into the mirror after I had gotten changed, I liked what I saw. I would like to think I'm not a vain person, but even saying that is vain. But when I was wearing this dress with these amazing shoes, I looked and felt good. And it was the first time in a long time that I felt, pretty. It was a wonderful change to feel pretty and equal to everyone around you. Like what you said and did, genuinely did have a bearing on someone.

Walking out of the bathroom and back towards the kitchen, I saw an office with Ranger sitting behind the desk. Changing my course I walked towards him. Knocking quietly on the door frame I watched as his focus changed from his computer to me for a brief second.

"Come in. Take a seat. I'll just be another minute." He said with a wave of his massive arm.

'_Oh great, this would be just my luck. I bet he'll want some kind of heart to heart thing and profess how much he always wanted a daughter and blah blah blah. Can't men just skip the emotional thing sometimes?' _I thought as I slouched down in my chair before I looking around his office.

His office was nice. Kind of redundant to have two offices in the same building, but hey, whatever floats your boat, right? He had one wall across from the door that was all windows with dark brown window hangings. His desk was placed on the right wall so that he could see the door and not have his back to the huge window. There where plush dark leather chairs sitting on the other side of his desk.

"So, let's gets back to our conversation from downstairs. You're sleeping in the back of your car right?" He asked as he shut off his lap top and turned to look at me. Only because I had lived the past two years of my life in a gang like atmosphere, thanks to Eli, I could pick up on the things others couldn't. It had saved my life more than once to just look around and watch a person's body langue. At first I thought I was just seeing something, but know I knew I wasn't. Every time Ranger looked at me, he flinched. It wasn't that noticeable, and if you weren't looking for it you would miss it. It was just the tinniest of flinches around his eyes and it only lasted less than a second.

"Yeah" My voice now dead and void of all life as we spoke, I didn't feel pretty anymore, and somehow it felt foolish to ever think I was.

_Did he really hate me so much within only a few hours of knowing each other that he would flinch at me?_

"Your 16, right?" I knew he knew all of this already and he didn't seem like the kind of man to forget so I wasn't sure what he was looking for in my answer.

"That's what they tell me."

"You don't have a job."

"Bingo."

"Family?"

"Dead." And it was true. I had no family in my book. If you wanted the Google definition, family is someone who you're bound to by blood or marriage. If you wanted my definition, family is someone who always has your back in a fight, and would never leave you or forsake you. By my definition, I had no family.

He seemed to take longer to process this. "And you came here because you needed an address?"

"Well don't you catch on quick?" I said with a huge fake smile and an even huger fake enthusiasm.

Ranger grinned at me, his eyes sparkling with laughter. "Is there anything else about you I should know?"

Thoughts of Eli and John rushed to the forefront of my thoughts before I shook my head left to right, pushing _those_ thoughts back down.

"Tell me about your mother." His face told me couldn't care less about the answer, his eyes told me that the answer to this, meant more then I would ever know.

"She was a great mother. She had a smile that could light up the world. She was my best friend. She always would listen to whatever I had to say, no matter how dumb. She was everything I could ever ask for. But that's the thing, she _was_ everything. She's not here anymore, and she never will be." I felt my throat clog as I talked.

_Amora, don't you dare for a second even think about crying. You're stronger than that. Think about purple cows. Come on Amora. What would purple cows look like, would they be purple with white spots or white with purple spots? _Yes. I know I'm crazy. But it works, I think about purple cows when I'm ready to cry and it always helps me to stop.

"I'm sorry. I want you to know that Anya wasn't just some one night stand. I loved her, and I would have married her, had I not been in the army. I wasn't going to marry her, go on some mission in a third world country, and never come home to her. And truth is, I also wasnt a very good person 17 years ago. I didnt have my act together, and I need to clean it up a lot. But I did just that. I can understand if you never forgive me for walking away from your mother. So I might be asking the impossible, but can you at the least empathize with what I'm saying even if you never forgive?" Rangers eyes where now searching deep in to my soul for my answer.

I nodded my head showing that I could since I didn't trust my voice right then. He was right, I wasnt sure if I could forgive him right now, but I could empathize with what he said.

"So anywho, are you ready to go or what?" It might have been a horrendous attempt to change the subject, but I didn't care.

He just grinned.

**Authors Note:**

** First and foremost I would like to say SORRY! I'm really sorry that it was been so long since last I updated this story! **

**Right now I'm trying SOO hard not to make this story borning, and to give it some well needed life! I feel that right now it's kind of blah. I want to take it from blah to extraordinary, astonishing and exceptional! So, with that in mind, I need a spark. I needed an idea that I can go and run with. So if you have even that simplest idea or comment, then clue me in to it!**

** Secondly, BIG thanks to the dear Emilie Martel for letting me bounce ideas off of her and for putting up with my horrendous spelling! HUGE thanks to the lovely Barb4psu for helping me with some of my ideas and reviewing my writing! (:**

**RAE!**

** REVIEW APPRAISE EVALUATE! =D**

** -LoveAngel**


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